Contrasting images of 1987--workers beginning to dig the new subway and the homeless digging in on Venice Beach--are reminders that the past year left the Los Angeles area with plenty of unfinished civic business. More tall buildings went up. The economy--driven by continued government contracts and Pacific Rim trade--seemed strong.

If there were a grand climatic design, New Year's Eve Day would be dank, dark and gray, thus creating a fittingly funereal mood in which to observe the passing of the late year. New Year's Day would on the other hand dawn crystal-clear, rain-washed and sparkling, atingle with the promise of 365 days in which to commit a whole new set of triumphs and follies.

Amid the heroic and villainous headliners in 1987, some locals who also made their mark: When 62-year-old Vincent Pelliccia of Newhall gave a ride to a man who was under surveillance by Los Angeles police, they ran a check on his license plate--and discovered that Pelliccia had escaped 41 years earlier from a Virginia chain gang. Neighbors, not to mention Pelliccia, were stunned inasmuch as the retired electrician had worked 28 years for Burbank Studios and reared five children.

I had a very scary thought a few months ago. It came to me at the height of the Weird News blitz, when all of the stories about Donna Rice, Jessica Hahn, Jim and Tammy, and Spuds MacKenzie were blending like various liquids at a toxic dump. Somehow, the corrosive effect of that congealed information triggered a freakish neutron blast in my brain.

Every year brings new products but 1987 was something special, with major companies making major announcements. IBM and Apple announced new product lines, while Compaq and several other firms committed themselves to developing innovative machines compatible with the existing IBM PC standard. The software industry was busy, too, with some important new products. The first big news came in March when Apple announced its Macintosh SE and Macintosh II models.

In some ways, 1987 was a classic Southern California disaster story, with a big (but not The Big) earthquake striking Whittier, motorists shooting at motorists on the freeways, near-collisions in the skies, beaches closed because of sewage spills and studies pegging the the air as, still, the worst in the nation.

The Russians were coming. The Russians were coming. The 1986-87 TV year more or less began as it ended--with a Soviet invasion of the United States. "Amerika" was the starter, Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev the topper.

Moral integrity, or the lack of it, was a major element in some of the year's biggest religion news stories. In an annual survey of its membership, the Religion Newswriters Assn. overwhelmingly picked the PTL scandal as the top news story in religion, followed by the U.S. visit of Pope John Paul II and the religiously imbued presidential campaign of Pat Robertson. American fascination with celebrities no doubt helped make those three stories top news.

Jon Bon Jovi is the Donald Trump of rock, a master strategist with a pretty face who knows how to think big and win. There's no talk about him running for President yet, but don't underestimate this guy. Instead of building skyscrapers and operating casinos, Bon Jovi (which is also the name of his band) sells albums--more than 8 million of them over the last 12 months in the United States alone.

In his annual state-of-the-game address at the winter baseball meetings here Monday, Commissioner Peter Ueberroth described 1987 as a year of progress in all areas, including equal employment opportunity. "We're doing a good job, we just need more time," Ueberroth said of the minority hiring program. He cited a variety of statistics.